Of pleasure
Men are also drawn to live together in society through the delight and pleasure that either the site of the place or the art of man doth minister and yield unto them. The site, by the freshness of the air, the pleasant view of the valleys, the pleasing shade of the woods, the commodity to hunt, and the abundance of good waters, of all which good things Antioch in Syria is liberally endowed, and Damascus no less, and Brusa in Bithynia, Cordova and Seville in Spain, and many other good towns elsewhere. Unto art belongeth the straight and fair streets of a city, the magnificent and gorgeous buildings therein either for art or matter, the theatres, porches, circles, races for running horses, fountains, images, pictures, and such other excellent and wonderful things as delight and feed the eyes of the people with an admiration and wonder at them.
The city of Thespis was frequented for the excellent workmanship sake of the image of Cupid, Samos for the marvellous greatness of the temple, Alexandria for the tower of Pharos, Memphis for the Pyramids, Rhodes for the Colossus. And how many shall we think have gone to Babylon to see the wondrous walls that Semiramis had made about it? The Romans many times willingly went for their recreations' sake to Syracuse, Mytilene, Smyrna, Rhodes and Pergamum, even to take the benefit of the air and to behold the beauty of those same cities. To conclude, all that ever feedeth the eye and delighteth the sense of man and hath any exquisite and curious workmanship in it, all that ever is rare, strange, new, unwonted, extraordinary, admirable, magnificent, great or singular by cunning, appertaineth to this head.
And amongst all the cities of Europe, Rome and Venice are the most frequented for the pleasures and delights they minister to all the beholders of them. Rome for the exceeding wonderful relics of her ancient greatness, and Venice for the gloriousness of her present and magnificent estate. Rome filleth the eye with wonder and delight at the greatness of her conduits, the rareness of her baths and hugeness of her colossi, as also at the art of her admirable works, both in marble and in brass, wrought by excellent artificers, at the height and hugeness of her obelisks, at the multitude and variety of pillars, at the diversity and fineness of strange marble, the exquisite and curious cutting of it, the porphyry, alabaster, marble white, black, grey, yellow and mixed, and serpentine; the great ruins, the holy gates, and a number of other sorts and kinds besides, which were too hard to recount and impossible to distinguish. What shall I say of the triumphal arches, of the seven zones or circles, of the temples, and what of a number of other wonders else? And what shall we imagine that city was when she flourished and triumphed, if now, while she lieth thus defaced and is none other than a sepulture of herself she allureth us to see her, and feedeth us insatiably with the ruins of herself.
On the other side, Venice, with the wonder of her incomparable situation (which seemeth the act of nature, by giving laws to the waters and setting a bridle on the sea)ministereth unto us no less admiration and wonder at it. The greatness also of her inestimable Arsenal, the multitude of ships both of war, of traffic and of passage, the incredible number of warlike instruments, ordnance and munition, and of all matter of preparations for the seas, the height of the towers, the riches of the churches, the magnificence of the palaces, the beautifulness of the streets, the variety of the arts, the order of her government, the beauty of the one and other sex, doth dazzle and amaze the eyes of the beholders of them.
